Page:The Dunciad - Alexander Pope (1743).djvu/149

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Norton,^{[R 3]} from Daniel and Ostrœa sprung, 415
Bless'd with his father's front, and mother's tongue,
Hung silent down his never-blushing head;
And all was hush'd, as Folly's self lay dead.^{[I 1]}
Thus the soft gifts of Sleep conclude the day,
And stretch'd on bulks, as usual, Poets lay.420

Remarks

between a true Play, and one made by a Poetaster, as between two religious books, the Bible and the Alcoran." Then he demonstrates, that "All those who had written against the Stage were Jacobites and Non-jurors; and did it always at a time when something was to be done for the Pretender. Mr. Collier published his Short View when France declared for the Chevalier; and his Dissuasive, just at the great storm, when the devastation which that hurricane wrought, had amazed and astonished the minds of men, and made them obnoxious to melancholy and desponding thoughts. Mr. Law took the opportunity to attack the Stage upon the great preparations he heard were making abroad, and which the Jacobites flattered themselves were designed in their favour. And as for Mr. Bedford's Serious remonstrance, though I know nothing of the time of publishing it, yet I dare to lay odds it was either upon the Duke d'Aumont's being at Somerset-house, or upon the late Rebellion." Dennis, Stage defended against Mr. Law, p. ult.

1. Ver. 414. Morgan] A writer against Religion, distinguished no otherwise from the rabble of his tribe than by the pompousness of his Title; for having stolen his Morality from Tindal, and his Philosophy from Spinoza, he calls himself, by the courtesy of England, a Moral Philosopher.
2. Ibid. Mandevil] This writer, who prided himself as much in the reputation of an Immoral Philosopher, was author of a famous book called the Fable of the Bees; which may seem written to prove, that Moral Virtue is the invention of knaves, and Christian Virtue the imposition of fools; and that Vice is necessary, and alone sufficient to render Society flourishing and happy.
3. Ver. 415. Norton] Norton De Foe, offspring of the famous Daniel. Fortes creantur fortibus. One of the authors of the Flying Post, in which well-bred work Mr. P. had sometime the honour to be abused with his betters; and of many

Imitations

1. Ver. 418. And all was hush'd, as Folly's self lay dead.] Alludes to Dryden's verse in the Indian Emperor;
   All things are hush'd, as Nature's self lay dead.